Home Office to pay TikTok influencers to warn migrants not to cross the Channel [Video]

The Home Office is planning to pay influencers to post content on TikTok warning migrants not to travel to Britain in small boats.

The government has been using taxpayer money for social media adverts aimed at deterring potential asylum-seekers for the past three years, in France, Belgium and Albania – but The Independent has previously reported how they had instead targeted tourists and business travellers.

It is now understood that home secretary James Cleverly has agreed to expand the campaign into new source countries, with conversations already underway with the governments of Vietnam, Iraq and Egypt about what forms it could take there.

Under this expansion, the government will also seek to pay influencers on sites such as TikTok to warn of …